Military Coups d'État in Cross-national Perspective 1

Studies on coups are legion. Here we will be concerned mainly with some of the more recent, quantitative cross-national analyses of the determinants of coups d'état. More precisely, it is the military coups d'état (mostly after World War II) with which we are almost exclusively dealing here. The concept of military coup d'état is narrower than that of military intervention which may be defined as “the armed forces' constrained substitution of their own policies and/or their persons, for those of the recognized civilian authorities” (FINER 1962:23). ² Coups are a subject of study which has attracted scholars for a variety of reasons. One reason is that coups occur frequently. For instance, 274 military coups ³ in 59 states between 1946 and 1970 have been listed in one comprehensive study on coups (coups being defined as “the removal or the attempted removal of a state's chief executive by the regular armed forces through the use or the threat of force,” THOMPSON 1973:6). ⁴ Another study reports that “a coup or attempted coup occurred once every 4 months in Latin America (from 1945 to 1972), once every 7 months in Asia (1947 to 1972), once every 3 months in the Middle East (1949 to 1972), and once every 55 days in Africa (1960 to 1972)” (BERTSCH et al. 1978:431).